On the Mend
by tapdancinghippo
Summary: AU: Takes place during WWII. Rachel is a nurse and Quinn's a soldier, both with extraordinary powers. Submission for Faberry Week Day 5/6 World War II/Superheroes .


Another rushed story to get in for Faberry Week, even though it's late. This is for days 5 and 6 (WWII/Superheroes). Combined the two even though it didn't really need to be, but I was getting so behind that I had to add the two days together somehow. I started writing a completely different story, but it was turning into a multi-chapter fic and I wouldn't have time for that. So, here's the rushed, unedited, abridged version. Booyah.

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On the Mend

December 7th, 1941, a day that would live in infamy. News flooded the radios and across streets from the mouths of panicked Americans. When it happened, people were saying it was the Nazis, others said it was the Japanese. Those who were more _aware_ knew that it was the Axis, and not just the Axis Nations, but the Axis of evil - the band of villains who were dead-set on taking over the world, one country at a time.

Men and women played their part during the war - on the front lines, in the hospitals, and in manufacturing warehouses. After the draft, men were shipped off to various countries to fight the good fight no matter how hopeless it seemed. Rachel Berry was among one of the few women transferred to the American front in northern France. She was known as the woman with the golden touch, because all of her patients made quick recoveries and were back on their feet within days. The other nurses and doctors had never seen anything like it.

Rachel always wanted to be in a profession that would help people and make them feel a sense of joy that she only felt when she sang. Before the war, she had dreamed of being a professional singer; she had a few gigs in piano bars, but nothing that would get her noticed. The war put all of that on hold; there were more important things to take care of and she knew that. People needed her and they needed her talent.

When they set up camps along the coast of France, Rachel was in charge of organizing the beds and making sure the injured soldiers were comfortable. She made her rounds, changed soldiers' dressing and got them water. After that, she moved onto the prisoners they had taken when they invaded the beach. They were taken to a separate area with guards outside of the tents. Rachel parted the entrance flaps and looked at the injured soldiers lined up on cots. She definitely had her work cut out for her.

When she made sure that the guards were outside and no other nurses were there, she got to work. She kneeled next to one of the men who had a big gash in his thigh. Rachel took a deep breath and blew gently on the cut and it became cauterized and almost completely healed. The soldier on the next bed had a bad head wound and a large bandage wrapped around his head. Rachel began to unwrap the bandage when the soldier's arm snapped up and a hand grabbed her arm forcefully. Rachel let out a small gasp and her eyes widened and just as she was about to call out for help, the soldier spoke.

"Rachel, please."

The voice was soft and quiet, not hardened by the war and, curiously, the prisoner knew Rachel's name.

"How do you know my name?"

"I've heard the other nurses speak to you. I'm sorry if I frightened you."

Rachel smiled artificially, unsure as to why this soldier, who was wearing a German uniform, had an American accent. "It's fine, just don't make anymore sudden movements. Now, let me look at your wound."

The nameless soldier relaxed and lay back down, allowing Rachel to unwrap the bandage further - brown eyes staring into hazel, a connection forming from just a few sentences said. Rachel didn't know what was happening, but she had to remind herself that this was the enemy and it was her job to make sure they were recovering.

"What's your name?" Rachel asked, examining the wound and blowing onto it, trying to stop the bleeding as much as she could.

"Quinn."

"It's nice to meet you, Quinn," Rachel replied, smiling warmly. "But I have to ask, what is an American doing in the German army?"

"I've seen what you can do, Rachel. I've seen how you treat patients, how you... heal them."

Rachel's eyes narrowed. "Don't change the subject. Who are you really?"

Quinn sat up. "Let me show you. You aren't the only one who's special." The man sat up once more, back straight, and closed his eyes. There, right in front of Rachel, Quinn the male suddenly became Quinn the female. She still had the same beautiful hazel eyes and blonde hair, and even the same lips. Rachel couldn't believe what she just saw.

"I was sent to Germany to infiltrate the Third Reich. The U.S. Army was rounding up others like you and me - people with abilities - and sending us right into the middle of the war. I'm assuming that's why you're here and not working on soldiers in a safer environment."

"So, you can turn into anyone?"

"As far as I know. I just have to picture someone in my head and I can look like them." Quinn looked at Rachel and turned herself into a copy of the brunette.

Rachel waved her hands in front of her face and looked away, "Oh goodness, okay turn back, turn back."

Quinn smiled and turned back into the female version of herself.

"Were you born female?" asked Rachel as she looked at Quinn's petite body.

"Yes, this is me. Did you want me to turn back into a man? I can if it'll make you feel more comfortable."

"No, no, that's not necessary. You look... nice either way," Rachel said, face and ears flushed.

Quinn smiled, proud of the effect she had on Rachel. "So," she drawled, "Do you have anyone waiting for you back at home?"

Rachel shook her head. "No, no one is waiting for me. I had a husband, but he was killed. He was in the Navy and his sub was hit off the coast of California, and I couldn't save him, so I became a nurse. I didn't want anyone else's husbands not making it back home if I could help it."

Quinn nodded solemnly. Rachel wrapped new bandages around Quinn's head gently and placed a hand on Quinn's forearm. "I'll be back to check on you in a little while."

"I'm already looking forward to it," Quinn replied, curling the corner of her lip up into a smile. She watched Rachel leave and turned herself back into a male, so she wouldn't raise any alarms if the other soldiers woke up or guards came in. Thoughts about Rachel's face and her eyes, her smile, her... everything, flooded Quinn's mind. She always knew that she was attracted to women, but she had never found one that made her feel this way. Rachel made her feel normal and anxious, in a good way, even though they had just met. She felt like she could take down the entire German army on her own.

Rachel walked around the site, checking on her patients and conversing with the other nurses who were sharing stories of their own patients and stories from back home. There were people there from all walks of life - teenage soldiers who had never had girlfriends, middle-aged women who were there to take care of the injured because their husbands had been killed in action, and men who were there to end the evil that was on their doorstep. She found herself thinking about Quinn all day, counting down the minutes until she had her next shift and could make her rounds back to the prisoner tent.

When Rachel made her way to the prisoner tent, Quinn was sleeping and instead of waking her, Rachel sat and watched. She had never seen someone look so peaceful in such a chaotic and stressful time. As she was about to bring her hand to Quinn's cheek, Quinn stirred, looked at Rachel, and smiled.

"Hey," mumbled Quinn as her female form took shape.

"Hey yourself," Rachel responded. "How are you feeling?"

"Less like my head has a giant hole in it," Quinn joked and sat up on her cot. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you." Rachel paused and thought for a moment. "You know, with your... ability, you can get yourself out of here. You don't need to stay in the POW tent."

Quinn smiled at Rachel's idea. It was intriguing that she wanted to help after just meeting the day before. "I appreciate you wanting to help me, but I don't mind being here. It's quiet and most of these men don't speak very good English, so I'm less likely to be found out. I honestly don't care where I am as long as you keep coming to visit me. I am worried about you, though. Won't it look suspicious if you're spending all of your time around a prisoner?"

"You let me worry about that, sergeant," Rachel replied with a wink, but she knew Quinn was right. It would become suspicious if she kept spending so much time in the prisoner tent. She had to be careful and didn't have much time. The army was moving to another area in the morning and they were going to send the prisoners back to the United States on the next fleet that was leaving to take the wounded.

Sunsets on the coast were breathtaking and Rachel wished her husband was there to share it with. It had only been four months since she heard about her husband's death and while she had time to mourn, helping the wounded and finding Quinn kept her mind off of him. It was a welcome distraction and she wasn't sure what any of it meant, but she could tell her heart was on the mend.

That night, Rachel drifted off to sleep in the nurse's tent with the rest of her colleagues. She awoke with a hand covering her mouth and a shadowy form was begging her to be quiet. The moonlight that came through the tent shone on the person's face and it was like she was looking at a mirror. Quinn must have taken her form so she could leave the prisoner's tent without being questioned.

"Quinn? What are you doing in here?"

Quinn changed back to herself. "Shh, Rachel, please. Can we go somewhere to talk?"

Slowly, Rachel got out of her cot and exited the tent. They slipped off into some brush and found a clearing. Rachel sat down on a log and watched Quinn pace around anxiously.

"What's the matter?"

Quinn continued pacing, clearly trying to gather her thoughts. Rachel stood up and blocked Quinn's way, holding her arms. "Quinn, stop. Tell me what's wrong."

"Everything," Quinn answered. "Everything feels wrong. I don't know what I'm doing anymore."

Rachel looked concerned and led Quinn to the log to sit and sat down next to her. "What do you mean?"

Quinn let out a long sigh. She had never been good at talking, especially about anything having to do with her feelings. "Part of me wants to just run away, go back to the States, but there's something that's keeping me here."

"What's keeping you here?" Rachel inquired.

"Isn't it obvious? You are, Rachel. I want to stay here and protect you, keep you safe. I know we've just met, but I can't stop thinking about you and I know that's not right in so many ways. I'm a woman who can turn into a man in the blink of an eye, so if I wanted to, I could become any man you wanted. I would do that for you; I'd be anyone you wanted. I could bring your husband back for you."

The look of desperation in Quinn's eyes shook Rachel to her very core. She didn't know what to say, which was strange, because she always had something to say.

Rachel tucked a strand of hair behind Quinn's ear and placed a hand on hers. "No, Quinn, I don't want my husband back. You're perfect the way that you are - a beautiful, strong woman. And while, yes, I'm aware that we only just met, I feel this connection with you that I've never felt before. I don't know if it's our powers, but I would like to think that it's deeper than that. Before I met you, I was just sort of existing. I fixed people, but didn't even think about fixing myself first, but you... because of you, I think I'm finally on my way to believing that I'll be okay."

Before Rachel could say anything else, Quinn leaned in and stole a kiss - hopefully the first of many. Rachel was caught off-guard and let out a tiny yelp, but once the initial shock wore off, she leaned right back into Quinn and kissed back. She opened her mouth just enough to allow Quinn to slip her tongue in gently, which elicited a soft moan from the back of Rachel's throat. The kiss became more feverish, more desperate as they both pulled each other closer; they couldn't feel, taste, or touch each other enough. They needed more, always more.

They spent the night together, alone with the stars. Rachel had run back to the tents to fetch some blankets and when she got back, Quinn was staring up into the sky. Rachel laid a blanket on the floor and sat down, joining Quinn in the stargazing.

After minutes passed, Quinn finally spoke. "The thing that I remember most about home is sitting on my roof and looking up at the stars. I know it's cliché, but it's comforting to know that with all of the changes going on in the world, constellations are always out there, somewhere."

Rachel nodded without a word, not wanting to interrupt Quinn's thoughts. She felt herself falling helplessly for this woman and it terrified her. After being married to a man and losing him so suddenly, without warning, she never expected to fall for a woman that she'd met two days before. Life was funny that way. They lay on the blanket, asked each other questions and broke down their walls, brick by brick, until they both fell asleep in each other's arms.

The sound of screaming shook Quinn awake. At first, she thought she was dreaming, but when the screams rang out again, she shot straight up and tried to wake Rachel up.

"Rachel, wake up, something is happening."

An explosion boomed nearby, gunfire and yelling followed soon after.

Rachel jerk herself awake and she sat up. She looked into Quinn's panicked eyes and reached around frantically for her clothes.

"What's going on? What was that explosion?"

"I don't know. The noise is coming from the camp on the coast. We need to get out there." Quinn headed out of the clearing, towards the coastline. When she emerged, she saw men fighting each other; the Germans must have found them. Quinn ran in, grabbing the first thing she could find - a crutch. She walked up to the nearest German soldier and cracked him over the head with the crutch. Then she picked up the man's gun and instructed Rachel to stay back.

Tents and ammo crates served as cover for Quinn as she examined her surroundings. The Americans were terribly outnumbered. An idea popped into her head and she found herself turning into the soldier she had just killed. A scream rang through the chilled night air and Quinn wasn't sure if it came from her or the soldier whose stomach she stabbed the bayonet into. Before she knew it, Quinn was shooting and flaying every German she saw.

Suddenly, she heard a woman cry out her name and she knew it was Rachel. She turned towards the woman she promised herself that she would protect and didn't see anyone near her. Instead, she was looking into the eyes of an American soldier who didn't recognize her. The only thing he saw was a German uniform and he drove his bayonet straight into her chest with a loud grunt. She looked down, saw her uniform begin to change color where the blood was seeping through and gazed back up into the American soldier's eyes; they had no remorse, only anger and pain.

She fell onto her knees and watched Rachel run towards her. Quinn smiled and lost control of her ability to hold another person's form; her hair growing longer, flowing over her shoulders, her skin becoming softer. Rachel threw herself onto the floor to catch Quinn in her arms, looking around frantically for anything to help stop the bleeding, but the medic tents were too far. Rachel hugged Quinn close to her chest, not quite sure what to do. She was a nurse, she was trained for this; why couldn't she figure out what to do? Her hands pulled at the uniform, opening it up enough to see the wound that the soldier made in Quinn's chest and it was deep. The only thing Rachel could think to do was use her siren's voice to try and seal the wound up, but nothing she was doing was working. It was too deep.

"Quinn, I can't... it's not healing. What do I do? I can't fix it. How do I fix it?" Rachel tore a piece of her nurse's uniform off to press onto the wound. "Tell me how to save you."

Quinn looked up into Rachel's eyes and smiled peacefully, reaching her hand up to cup her cheek. "You already have." Rachel felt her slip away and held her tighter to her chest.

"Quinn, no, you can't leave me. You can't come into my life just to leave me like this. I... I love you." Rachel kissed the top of Quinn's head and hugged the lifeless body and rocked them back and forth. No one prepared any of them for this. They were trained to bandage, suture, and stitch, but no one told them how to deal with loss. The American troops pushed the Germans back until they began to retreat.

In the morning, they were all taken back once the support fleet landed. The ships were loaded with the prisoners, the wounded, and the dead. Quinn was among them and Rachel wanted to go back with her, but she knew she wouldn't be allowed. One of the soldiers who came to take them back was a friend of Rachel's, Mike Chang. She begged him to take care of Quinn's body, because she didn't know if she had any family back home. When she got back, Rachel said she would pay for the gravesite next to Finn, so she would be able to visit the man she married and the woman whose heart she saved.

Every Wednesday, Rachel would visit their graves and set a bouquet of pink carnations and gardenias in front of them. She would talk to them and tell them how much they would have liked each other, because they were both honest and protective. Rachel tried to find someone new; she really did, but none of them lived up to her fallen soldiers.

The hospital became her home; she went to work every morning, helped whoever she could. She'd look at men, wondering if they would suddenly turn themselves into a blonde woman with fierce hazel eyes and a gentle smile, but they never did. They were always just regular men who needed their war wounds patched up and nothing more.

That's how Rachel spent her days – living with a memory and not being able to fill her heart completely, until she met a young girl. The girl was an orphan, no older than ten, and both of her parents were war heroes who had died in the war. Rachel would have been sixteen when the girl was born; motherhood was always something Rachel dreamed about and this little girl needed love and a family. They lived with Rachel's fathers in her childhood home and Rachel knew that this was what she needed to be able to move on. Her daughter was her life now and even though she missed her husband and Quinn every day, having someone else to take care of and protect made life worth living again.

Her daughter would sit with Rachel on their porch and tell her stories about her parents, about all the adventures they had together and how she would see them in heaven some day. Rachel saw so much of Quinn in this little girl and it made her love her that much more.

Her name was Beth.


End file.
